The 10 people named above, all recently arrested in eastern
Bhutan by the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), are feared to be at risk
of torture or ill-treatment in incommunicado detention. Some of
those arrested are reported to have been subjected to flogging
and to be now held in solitary confinement.

Wangchuck, Dorji and Zamtsho, three farmers from Drametsi, Mongar
district, were arrested on 28 July 1997 and initially taken into
custody at Mongar town. The following day, Sangye Wangdi, a
shop-keeper from Changmi village, Tashigang district, was
arrested at his shop in Samdrup Jonkhar town. Also on 29 July,
Dhendup Tshering, Karma Chogyel and Yeshey, all Buddhist monks
from Kheri Gompa Monastery, Pema Gatshel district, were arrested.
On 31 July, Thinley Wangdi, a retired attendant to the King of
Bhutan from Lumang, Tashigang district, was arrested in Wamrong,
Tashigang district. All eight men are currently believed to be
in Samdrup Jonkhar prison, Samdrup Jonkhar district. On 1
August, Rinzin Samdrup, a village Religious Coordinator, was
arrested in Chimung, Pema Gatshel district. His place of
detention is not known.

Also on 1 August, Karma Chogyel, a businessman from Drametsi, was
arrested in Samdrup Jonkhar town and taken to Samdrup Jonkhar
prison. Karma Chogyel is Sangye Wangdi's younger brother.
According to the information received, Karma Chogyel was arrested
because he informed people in Nepal -- where he had recently
travelled to -- of his elder brother's arrest. This would appear
to be substantiated by reports that RBP officers have threatened
other people to keep quiet about the recent spate of arrests or
to face arrest themselves.

None of the detainees has yet been charged and or given access
to a jabmi (legal adviser) or relatives. There is a suspicion
that they may have been arrested because of their alleged
membership of the Druk National Congress (DNC), a political
organization set up in exile in Nepal. Reportedly, they are also
supporters of Rongthong Kunley Dorji, the founder of the DNC, who
is currently detained in India where he is opposing his
extradition to Bhutan. Amnesty International fears that, as a
result of their actual or suspected membership of the DNC and
association with Rongthong Kunley Dorji, they may be tortured or
ill-treated while in police custody, possibly in an attempt to
extract from them the names of other DNC supporters.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The arrests described above appear to be part of a crackdown
carried out by the RBP during the past two weeks on people
suspected of being DNC sympathizers. Some reports suggest that
as many as 50 people, all from Mongar, Pema Gatshel and Tashigang
districts in eastern Bhutan, may have been arrested, but the
exact number of those taken into custody cannot currently be
confirmed.

The fear that the above-named individuals may be tortured or
ill-treated in custody is heightened by recent reports that four
members of the DNC were tortured by police shortly after their
arrest in eastern Bhutan in early February 1997. According to
a relative of one of them, the four men, Taw Tshering, Tshampa
Wangchuck, Tshampa Ngawang Tenzin and Chhipon Samten Lhendup,
currently detained at Tashi Yangtshi prison, were held completely
naked for one week in very low temperatures. Rongthong Kunley
Dorji himself was reportedly tortured by members of the Royal
Bhutan Bodyguards after his arrest, in 1991, on charges of
treason.

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